France,
1994, 68 min
Shown in 1995
CREDITS
- dir
-
Claire Denis
- prod
-
Georges Benayoun, Paul Rozenberg
- scr
-
Claire Denis, Anne Wizaemsky
- cam
-
Agnes Goddard
- editor
-
Dominique Auvray
- cast
-
Alice Houri, Jessica Tharaud, Greegoire Colin, Vincent Gallo
- source
-
IMA Productions
-
COMMENTS
Part of “All the Boys and Girls of Their Age,” a series of films in which nine directors each create a story about their teenage years. Too Much Happiness, Portrait of a Young Girl in the Late ‘60s in Brussels and Wild Reeds (all SFIFF 1995) are also part of the series. Claire Denis in person.
OTHER
This film, as does Too Much Happiness, stages the torments of adolescent sexual curiosity and desire. U.S. Go Home is set in mid-1960s suburban Paris. Martine is determined to lose her virginity. Marlene, seemingly more experienced, advises her. Martine’s older brother is the restless and reluctant chaperone. They all go to a party. The backdrop is the growing French infatuation with U.S. mass culture and the simultaneous rejection of U.S. political imperialism. This conflicting response to cultural difference is sharply reflected in the characters’ ambivalent and faltering approach to the other sex.
FACTOID #25
The San Francisco International showed Lina Wertm’ller’s first film, The Lizards, in 1963. A favorite of Bay Area audiences, her features All Screwed Up and The Seduction of Mimi had their U.S. premieres at the SFIFF in 1972 and 1974.
